1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes drier for drying clothes contained in a rotating drum.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A clothes drier for supplying heated air to a rotating drum containing clothes as well as rotating the rotating drum to dry the clothes has been conventionally used. Such a clothes drier generally comprises a fan, and air in the clothes drier is circulated through a circulating duct connected to the rotating drum by the rotation of the fan. A heater is mounted in the vicinity of the entrance of the rotating drum. The air fed into the circulating duct is heated by the heater to form heated air, and the heated air formed is supplied to the rotating drum. In the rotating drum, heat is exchanged between the heated air supplied and the clothes, whereby water penetrating into the clothes is vaporized. Air containing water is exhausted from the rotating drum to the circulating duct, whereby the water contained in the air is cooled down and condensed to dehumidify the air by predetermined dehumidifying means. The dehumidified air is fed toward the entrance of the rotating drum again through the circulating duct by the rotation of the fan. The condensed water is drained outward from the clothes drier through a predetermined drain port.
In this type of clothes drier, the termination of drying processing is generally determined depending on whether or not the temperature difference between temperatures respectively detected by two temperature sensors reaches a predetermined temperature difference corresponding to the amount of clothes. Utilized as the above described two temperature sensors are a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the air exhausted from the rotating drum and a temperature sensor for detecting the room temperature. The temperature of the air exhausted from the rotating drum can be considered to be approximately the same as the temperature of the clothes in the rotating drum because heat is exchanged between the air and the clothes in the rotating drum. On the other hand, the room temperature is generally constant. When the temperature difference between the temperature of the air exhausted from the rotating drum and the room temperature reaches a predetermined temperature difference, it can be judged that the clothes are thoroughly dried.
The clothes drier is installed in a narrow room such as a bathroom in many cases. If the door of the bathroom is suddenly opened, for example, therefore, the temperature of the room may rapidly drop. Consequently, the temperature difference between the temperature of the air exhausted from the rotating drum and the room temperature rapidly reaches the predetermined temperature difference, whereby it is erroneously determined that drying processing is terminated, although it is not actually terminated.